...a photoBook is an autonomous art form, comparable with a piece of sculpture, a play or a film. The photographs lose their own photographic character as things 'in themselves' and become parts, translated into printing ink, of a dramatic event called a book...
- Dutch photography critic Ralph Prins

vrijdag 31 januari 2014

Some Rare and Superb Propaganda photoBooks from the collection of Martin Parr Archivo Photography

PYONGYANG

by Anonymous

Santiago, Chile: Editora Nacional Gabriela Mistral, nd [1975] Paperback First edition, first printing. Good paperback with wear at the edges and extremities, a small tear at the crown, and shelf wear; interior clean and bright. BOOKS SHIP THE NEXT BUSINESS DAY, WRAPPED IN PADDING, IN A BOX. 100 pages; 119 b&w and 1 color photograph; 9.5 x 9.5 inches. Text in English, Spanish and French. Published by the military junta after the 1973 coup to show what a better place Chile was now that the Communists were out of power. See Fernandez, The Latin American Photobook, p103.

First edition of a seminal early record of the 1967 Six Day War, an exceptional presentation/

association copy inscribed on the second page of text, shortly after publication, by then General Rabin to Ronald Reagan as Governor of California. Rabin, who became Israel’s Fifth Prime Minister, won the Nobel Peace Prize with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat one year before his assassination, and Reagan became America’s 40th President. This authoritative work, containing text by both Rabin and Moshe Dayan, features 12 full-page maps with color-outlined overlays and is profusely illustrated with hundreds of photogravures, many full page (15 in color), including photographs by noted photographers Cornell Capa and Don McCullin.

This highly memorable presentation/association copy of Israel Defence Forces is inscribed by Yitzhak Rabin soon after publication to Ronald Reagan, America’s 40th President, who was then Governor of California. As General, Rabin led Israel to victory in the 1967 Six Day War and became Israel’s fifth Prime Minister. In 1994 Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat, the same year he was awarded the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award, and only one year before his tragic assassination. In a prefatory essay to this important work, Moshe Dayan, as Israel’s Minister of Defence, writes: “During those Six Days, the Israel Defence Forces fought a coordinated campaign without let-up in desert and on mountain, in the air and on the sea, in night and day actions, with amour and infantry, from the walls of Jerusalem to Mount Hermon in the north and to Sharm e-Sheikh in the south.” In his own introduction Rabin pays further tribute to hard-fought struggle, adding: “most important of all was the spirit of the individual fighting man ready to risk his life at all times. This book tells the story of the battles… But it is dedicated to the entire nation of Israel, who stood with steadiness and courage behind their defenders.” With prefatory essay by Moshe Dayan and introduction by Rabin. Text by Nathan Shaham.

1957 in Eng land A Sou venir of the lives and times of peop le supporting and accompanying the 47th Bombardment Wing, Tactical United States Air Force during the historic year of nineteen hundred and fifty-seven

Published by United States Air Force, Sculthorpe, Norfolk, 1957

Unpaginated. Front cover creased and dog-eared, and spiral binding broken at the bottom. Contents clean w just a little finger-creasing. Packed with photographs, mainly black and white, a pictorial souvenir of England.

People of Vietnam Will Triumph! the U.S. Aggressors Will Be Defeated!: a Collection important Paperback– January 1, 1965

China.

Beijing: China Album Editing Commit tee, 1959. First Edition. Large folio. One of the greatest propaganda books ever published, with over 500 illustrations, many photographic and printed in rich gravure, with color images, and non-photographic art plates, either tipped or mounted in. Published to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. No edition size is indicated. A beautiful copy in satin boards with inset red Chinese characters, original acetate overlay, publisher's box.

This series on Portugal shows the powerful combinations of photographs and text that were becoming common in European propaganda during the 1920s and 30s. In the Soviet UnionAlexander Rodchenko[1] was using similar layouts to portray technical achievements in USSR in Construction[2] along with other photomontagists such as Gustav Klutsis. In Weimar GermanyJohn Heartfield was using graphical juxtapositions to highlight the dangers of rising Fascism.

The illustrations for this exhibition are taken from the book Portugal 1934[3] published in Lisbon and edited by S.P.N. The acronym stood for the Secretariado Nacional de Propaganda in the days before Joseph Goebbels put such negative connotations on the word that it is still difficult to use it. This book was the official propaganda book for the Estado Novo, the right-wing regime inaugurated by António de Oliveira Salazar in 1933 and it includes photographs by the most famous Portuguese photographers of the time:Alvão, A. Rasteiro, João Martins, Diniz Salgado, Ferreira da Cunha, Francisco Santos, Horácio Novais, J. Benoliel, José Mesquita, Luis Teixeira, Pinheiro Correia, Mário de Novais, Octávio Bobone, Raimundo Vaissier, Raúl Reis, Salazar Diniz, Serra Ribeiro and V. Rodrigues. Footnotes

Λ Black cover. Fully illustrated with almost 200 photographs. This large format edition was published with three different covers (orange, green and black). The book includes several half-size pages, full double-pages bleeds and fold-outs.